Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009)

Before beginning this review, it’s important to note that Dead Hooker in a Trunk was made with a measly $2,500 and a lot of heart and passion; it’s difficult to ignore such dedication, even though the final product is mediocre at best. That said, Dead Hooker in a Trunk is the feature film debut of actor/ director Canadian twin siblings Sylvia Soska and Jen Soska aka The Twisted Twins, who have slowly started making a name for themselves in the low budget horror industry. Their feature film debut Dead Hooker in a Trunk revolves around four nameless characters, Badass (Sylvia Soska), her sister Geek (Jen Soska) and their friends Junkie (Rikki Gagne) and Goody Two Shoes (C.J. Wallis), who discover a dead prostitute’s body in the boot of Badass’ truck after a wild night. Unsure of whether or not Badass or Junkie are responsible for the hooker’s death, the four plan to get rid of the evidence and go about their daily business. What follows is a bunch of crazy, incoherent sequences, where the un-relatable foursome makes stupid decision after stupid decision without any reasoning or explanation, unfortunately leaving the viewers pretty lost.

Bad Ass Babe!

Due to the low budget of the film, the camera work looks particularly shoddy, as if we are watching an armature student film, (which the Soska sisters were at this point), and it feels like extras and other crew are trying to hide as the camera moves around almost sporadically for the duration of the movie. The sets and locations also look rather cheap and messy, which sometimes works with the gritty nature of the film, but other times appears lazy or poorly constructed, particularly some of the church locations. The gore effects and violence are okay at best, with one or two stand out action/ gore sequences (which shows that the girl’s hearts were in the right place), while other smaller kills are evidently cheaply created, causing a bit of inconsistency. As a whole, Dead Hooker in a Trunk looks like a student film, as the girls were trying to make a name for themselves with this little project, and they did an okay job aesthetically.

The film’s strongest point are it’s leads Sylvia and Jen, who are engaging, wild, and captivating for the duration of the picture, stealing the spotlight from the entire cast, once again illustrating their passion for the project and the film they were creating. Their script though, at times did feel like it was written during a free session at high school with an unnecessary amount of f-bombs, mentally impaired characters and bad lines, but strangely works sometimes as a gnarly pulp exploitation film when handled a bit more carefully; It’s just way too inconsistent as a whole though.

‘You better not hurt my sister … or else!’

So, as much as I do love the Soska girls, and as much as I know that they did put passion and effort into this project, I don’t think it really worked, and when the final act kicked off I was looking at my watch, or secretly hoping that one of the twins would take their cloths off (yes, I was that bored). So I’d say Dead Hooker in a Trunk is worth your time if you are interested in The Twisted Twins work, but don’t expect much, who knows, maybe then you might get a kick out of it!